


Condico

by Lywinis



Series: Drawing of Three: An Arcana Drabble Collection [1]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-02
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2021-01-18 16:00:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21279395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lywinis/pseuds/Lywinis
Summary: "Pasha's invited us to ring in the new year," Julian said, carefully.
Relationships: Apprentice/Julian Devorak
Series: Drawing of Three: An Arcana Drabble Collection [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533968
Kudos: 12





	Condico

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bearfeathers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bearfeathers/gifts).

> bearfeathers said:  
12 for Apprentice/Julian 👀
> 
> 12\. Family gatherings

"Pasha's invited us to ring in the new year," Julian said, carefully. Oswin grunted, making Julian's head shift where it was pillowed against the solid muscle that was his stomach. It was a grunt Julian had come to recognize as 'I've heard you say something, but I need to finish this before I can address it.'

Reasonable, since he was currently engrossed in a text on esoteric sigils, one that looked more like it was written by spiders that had dipped their webs in ink and strewn them across the page rather than any language Julian knew.

They both had those cues, and spending as much time together as they did, it was easy and almost natural to pick up on them.

Julian sometimes had to wonder if that habit was something they'd done before. With the knowledge that they'd been acquainted before, had perhaps even been involved...it was slow going sometimes, digging up a sudden, painful memory like sea glass that hadn't quite been worn down by the press of the waves.

Oswin, on the outside, had always seemed a cheerful, if quiet sort. Knowing him better, Julian had seen the fire beneath, and the steel of his will made manifest. It wasn't every day one's sweetheart went up against the Devil for you.

Oswin lowered his hand to Julian's hair, making him hum in appreciation as the other carded it through thick, red strands. The apprentice's hands were large, topping even Julian's long fingers by almost a knuckle, but they were deft, and so clever. Julian's eyes slipped closed, and were he a cat, he'd be purring. There was something entirely thrilling about having a person whose hands could likely wrap around the back of your skull and crush it, but he was unfailingly gentle.

It was a dichotomy that Julian could appreciate.

"We have the engagement at the palace," Oswin said, marking the page with one large finger. "Nadia requested our presence, and Portia's."

He knew, of course, but Oswin was their record-keeper, their appointment setter, their coordinator. He knew to the date what they were doing for the next three months, and running two shops together and making sure deliveries ran on time for Julian's clinic as well as for his own practices made Oswin a walking calendar. Perfectly practical, in every way.

Julian didn't envy that kind of mental dexterity; his talents lay elsewhere.

Such as giving a frown and watching Oswin's grey eyes soften, the dark circles beneath them more genetics than lack of sleep these days. Their nightmares were fewer and farther between now; the Devil's ensnarement had cleared up a good portion of their night terrors.

Oswin tugged a little of Julian's hair, winding the red around his finger and then releasing it to watch it curl against the doctor's cheek.

"When does she want to do this?" he asked. A compromise, a meeting of the minds. Hardly steel unbending, because even steel had its breaking point. Julian felt affection warm in his chest.

"The actual night," Julian said. "Nadia's party is in the evening, but I have no doubt we can slip away and make our apologies."

"Or we could just talk to Nadia," Oswin said, with a raise of his dark brows, as though the thought had just occurred to him. The sarcasm, thick and heavy in his voice, belied that illusion, though. "Remember how we've had this conversation, about talking to people? Communicating our needs?"

"You're no fun," Julian said, pressing his face into Oswin's stomach, hiding his smile. "You get your hands on one psychology book and you're a terror."

"Someone has to counteract your bouts of emotional constipation," Oswin countered, fetching his bookmark from the side table as Julian gaped at him, offended. "Besides, you just want to ask forgiveness rather than permission."

"Well, yes, I have a reputation to maintain," Julian sniffed. He hadn't moved from his place, smooshed against Oswin's side, warm and tangled, but now it seemed like Oswin was restless, and he made a noise of censure when the apprentice shifted.

"You can't be a rake and in a committed relationship, Julian. That's not how that works." Oswin gave a low, rumbling chuckle, the sound melting Julian further into his partner's side. "Mysterious Doctor Julian Devorak, who returned and proved his own innocence, beat the Devil at his own game, and no one can really agree on how he did it. That should be enough to keep you going for at least the next decade."

Julian snorted. "You could always set the record straight."

"No one would believe me. I'm just an apprentice to the Magician Asra." Oswin grinned at him, a crooked thing full of mischief. "Most of them wonder what I possess to keep you beside me."

"What?" Julian asked, thoroughly distracted from his original topic now.

"Well, yes," Oswin said. "I've been remembering more, lately. My parents."

"When was this?" Julian asked, wriggling until he was pillowed on the apprentice's shoulder rather than his stomach, now that the book was away.

"About three or four days ago. I finally remembered what my mother and father did. Sheep. We had a flock, outside Vesuvia, in the hills. We sold the wool in market at the ends of the month. We weren't wealthy but we weren't destitute."

"I never knew," Julian said. His brows pinched, as he sifted through his own admittedly spotty memory. "Or at least, I don't think I did. Are they...?"

"No," Oswin said, picking up on Julian's unfinished question.

"Oh," he said. He felt heavier now, as though something had settled on his chest. "How--"

"Plague," Oswin said. He cast a sharp look at Julian. "And just like me, this was not your fault, Julian. Lucio is the one to blame here. He brought the plague to Vesuvia. You didn't."

Julian sucked a breath between his teeth. "If I'd just--"

"Julian," Oswin said. It wasn't unkind, his tone, and it broke Julian from the circle his thoughts had begun. "They died long before we realized the plague was such a problem. They were a part of the first deaths, where we thought it was just a one-off sickness. Their deaths aren't your fault. None of them are."

"Are you sure?" Julian asked, and Oswin's hand rose to the back of his neck, cradling him.

"My parents fell sick at market," Oswin said. "They'd wanted to avoid the city because of rumors of people falling sick, but the Count demanded a new outfit for the masquerade. So they brought their finer cloths to the palace for him to see. Lucio didn't give a damn about the people that produced the fancy clothes he wore, so long as they kept coming in."

He took a shuddering breath, and Julian pressed his lips to Oswin's forehead.

"Do you miss them?" he asked, hesitant.

"It's still fuzzy." The apprentice rolled the word around in his mouth, as though deciding it were the right one. "My mother cried, I remember, when we discovered I had a talent for magic. She knew that I would leave home."

"And you did?" he asked.

"Shortly before Lucio was made Count." He exhaled, looking up at the ceiling, his thumb drawing a circle on the back of Julian's neck. "I spoke with them whenever they were at the market, and then...they were gone. Some people remembered them, and treated me accordingly, if they held the same apocryphal notions of class."

"That doesn't mean you're unworthy of me, or some-such nonsense," Julian said, after a long moment. "You saved me. You saved all of us."

"We saved each other," Oswin murmured, and Julian felt his chest clench.

"Then we should ring in the new year with Pasha," he said. "I'll talk to Nadia. This is something we need to do. As a family."

Oswin blinked, and Julian realized the apprentice's eyes were wet.

"Oh." It was all the apprentice could muster, and he pulled Julian closer, burying his face against the doctor's hair.

"I can't bring them back," Julian said, against Oswin's neck. "But I can keep their memory alive, with you."

"I'd like that," Oswin said.

Julian found that he would, too.

**Author's Note:**

> I do like the Arcana, despite a lot of the game's issues, both in game and behind the scenes. Oswin is my apprentice, a gentle giant of a man who likes doing magic and reading.


End file.
